This invention relates to a device for the fast assembling and disassembling of a machine part, in particular, but non-limitatively, a plate-shaped part.
This invention also relates to a needling loom equipped therewith for the fast assembly and disassembly of plates such as the stripping plates and/or the needling table, in order to clean them quickly.
Certain machine parts require accurate positioning when they are in service in the machine, but require more or less frequent disassembly for reasons of maintenance, replacement or cleaning.
These operations of disassembly and reassembly require the machine to be stopped. It is therefore particularly important to reduce the duration of this stoppage.
A needling loom conventionally comprises a set of parallel needles actuated in a reciprocating manner in their longitudinal direction in order to penetrate repeatedly through a fibre web in order to consolidate the web by interlacing the fibres composing it. The path of the fibres in the working area of the needles is conventionally defined between two plates pierced with orifices for the needles to pass through. The plate located on the side where the needles are situated when they are in the withdrawn position is called a xe2x80x9cstripping platexe2x80x9d. It serves to prevent the fibre web from being dragged by the needles during their return motion towards the withdrawn position. The other plate, serving to prevent the fibre web from being pushed by the points of the needles, is called the xe2x80x9cneedling loom tablexe2x80x9d. These two plates require periodic disassembly in order that the orifices through which the needles pass can be cleared of fibres and other materials that can become lodged in them in an increasing quantity during operation.
So-called xe2x80x9cfastxe2x80x9d assembly and disassembly devices are known. All of these known devices are more or less ingenious bolting means but which only rarely make it possible to reduce the assembly or disassembly times to less than about one hour and thirty minutes. Such a duration seriously impedes production.
The purpose of the present invention is to propose an assembly and disassembly device that makes it possible to reduce this time considerably, and a needling loom whose plates, such as the stripping plate and/or the needling loom table, are equipped with this device in order to procure improved productivity.
According to a first aspect of the invention, the fast assembly and disassembly device for positioning a machine part in an operating position against support means provided on the machine, and selectively for releasing said part to allow mobility thereof, is characterized by comprising:
guidance means allowing insertion and extraction of the part into and out of the machine respectively;
pressers which are movably mounted with respect to the frame of the machine, and capable of moving the part between the operating position and a preparatory position in which the part is interacting with the guidance means; and
means of simultaneous control of the pressers.
Thanks to the means of control, the pressers can be simultaneously actuated in order to cause movement of the machine part from its operating position to the preparatory position ensuring the interaction with the guidance means. It then suffices to move the machine part along the trajectory defined by the guidance means in order to extract the machine part and to be able to carry out the necessary replacement or maintenance operation. During reassembly, the guidance means make it possible to return the part to the preparatory position. At this stage, the pushers are actuated simultaneously in the direction of returning the part to the operating position. If needed, according to a preferred version of the invention, locking means are also provided in order to stabilise the part in the operating position.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the needling loom comprising:
a frame;
a path for a textile product to be needled;
at least one plate adjacent to a major face of the path;
at least one set of needles carried by a moving beam connected to an actuating mechanism for reciprocating the needles through the path and through orifices in the plate,
is characterized by furthermore comprising at least one device for fast assembly and disassembly of the plate according to the first aspect.
Other features and advantages of the invention will furthermore emerge from the following description, relating to a non-limitative example.